Thursday,
July 12, 2007
Italian Interior Minister Amato
Infuriates Sicilians with Wife Beating Tradition Claim
The
ANNOTICO Report
My
Sicilian female relatives are the toughest, (but kindest) women I ever met, and
I can't imagine any of my uncles raising a hand, or any of their wives
tolerating it.
I
dare say, any one of the wives could beat the crap out of wimpy Giuliano Amato, and might want to, when they hear he is
accusing them of being "daisies". :) :)
Thanks to
Pat Gabriel and Frashetta
Interior Minister Upsets Sicilians
Amato in trouble over wife-
beating comment
ANSA
July 11, 2007
Interior Minister Giuliano Amato upset Sicilians on Wednesday by saying that
wife beating was a traditional part of their culture.
Amato made the gaffe during a conference here on the integration of Muslim
immigrant communities.
"No God ever authorised a man to beat a woman.
It's a Sicilian-Pakistani tradition which would have us believe
otherwise," the minister said.
Amato, a former Socialist premier now serving in the centre-left government of
Premier Romano Prodi, went on to liken the
"customs and traditions" prevalent in Sicily up until the 1970s to
"those that have been imported by certain groups of Muslim
immigrants". The remarks immediately landed Amato in hot water.
Opposition MP and ex-minister Stefania Prestigiacomo, who is Sicilian, threatened to sue him.
"Amato talks off the top of his head. Either he immediately apologises to Sicilians or I'll sue him for libel,"
she said.
Another Sicilian MP belon ging to opposition chief Silvio
Berlusconi's Forza Italia party also demanded an
apology.
"Our island's culture acknowledges women's primary role in society and no
one has the right to define a lack of respect towards women a Sicilian
characteristic," lawmaker Giuseppe Marinello
said.
"No such Sicilian-Pakistani tradition exists," he added indignantly.
Ignazio La Russa, the House
Whip for the rightist National Alliance party, said that "in all societies
in the past, chauvinism led to disrespect and sometimes violence against women
but it is a huge whopper to say that in
Last December, Amato offended Muslim communities with comments on the sharia, the Islam-inspired law system.
Speaking at another
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